By Ramadhan Rajab
Vulnerable groups have a reason to smile. For the first time, they emerged winners in this year’s budget under the social protection programme with more than Sh2 billion incentive.
In his economic stimulus package, the Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta gave Sh200 million to social protection of the old.
HelpAge International, an NGO that serves the old praised the move but cited difficulties in remittance of the funds.
"This is a positive move towards appreciating the older persons in our society, but the bottleneck remains at the modalities of remittance given that the social protection policy has not been passed or even introduced in the house. This could have provided a clear framework of distribution of this funds," HelpAge Manager Wamuyu Manyara said.
For the physically challenged, a Sh200 million kitty was set up to offer interest free loans to finance their business ventures.
The budget also saw the minister pledge to gazette income tax exemptions on the salaries of those with disabilities as well as allow tax exemptions for those seeking medical attention and disability related items.
Uhuru also gave Sh100 million to equip special schools and institutions for the disabled.
Borrowing from the Gujarat food programme, the minister formed a taskforce to spearhead the development of a well-targeted food subsidy scheme to ensure food security and improve welfare of the vulnerable group.
The minister allocated Sh1 billion of Sh2 billion earmarked for drought and famine interventions for this programme.
